When I got up today I assumed we had entered Puget Sound because the ship was moving so little. However, when I looked out the window to see how far we were from the dock, I saw…nothing. I could not see the city at all. In fact, I couldn’t see the water or the sky either. I have never been in a thicker fog than today. Even when we had tied up around 1030, you could barely see across the channel.
We decided to hang around for a little while to watch the day workers pull the #1 piston from the main engine. The piston rings needed to be replaced. To do this they had to first cut off all supply and return from the piston. Then, unbolt the cover with the help of hydraulics. After the cover was removed, the guy in charge got inside the cylinder and polished it up with a grinder. Finally, after about 3 hours, they were able to pull the piston from the engine and set it down.
The piston + piston rod together, when lifted by the ship’s gantry crane to its maximum height, do not even clear the cylinder head bolts. To get the pieces out they had to tilt them and move them diagonally. This is a pretty good example of people forced to do unsafe things because the ship wasn’t designed properly (tall enough).
The cylinder liners all need to be replaced, but that job is done in Hawaii. Someone at corporate decided to veto the idea to be smart about this and do all of the cylinder work on the same day. It also seems that day workers have never gotten the “wear a hard hat” or “don’t stand under a suspended load” memos. But they definitely got the one about doing stretches before working.
So, we finally got off the ship around 1600. None of our friends in the city were free to meet us at that time, so we went back to Pike Place Market. We have both run out of books to read, so we decided that in Seattle we would look for a used bookstore. If the books are any good, we’ll keep them, and if they’re not we’ll donate them to the officer’s lounge. You’re welcome?
We ended up in the most hipster bookstore ever. All the shelves were neatly labeled with categories like “biographies of anarchist people of color”, “animal liberation”, “anti-civilization literature”, etc. sheesh man, I only wanted a story.
From there we moved on to another store in the lower level of the market. This one was much better for me, so I had to leave quickly before it got dangerous. We ended up eating dinner in the market with waterfront seating (see below).
We made another short visit to Justin’s house (“Jenny, how many paper cranes did you hide in our apartment??”) for ice cream before heading back to the ship. Our stay this time was very short, probably to make up for the time we lost on the way to Hawaii. Surprisingly, we never met the storm that we had been worried about, so weather routing does actually work. We should be in Oakland in a couple of days.
From today:
daytime ferris wheel
from dinner: NIGHTTIME FERRIS WHEEL
as usual, our ship is in the background. We just can’t get away from it.
(fireworks appreciation noises)
A most excellent Blog. Keep it up, Jenny. ;)
ReplyDeleteUncle Paul